The contrast could not be clearer. While Donald Trump and his pal Keir Starmer were hiding behind royal aprons at Windsor, hidden away from public gaze and fawning over a feudal institution, thousands marched openly to protest against the president’s unprecedented second state visit to the UK. They demonstrated in support of Palestinians and against Israel’s slaughter in Gaza and for Ukraine’s right to self-determination.
Trump is carrying out what has been described as an authoritarian putsch. Power that once belonged to Congress is now vested in the Oval Office. Judgements against the government are ignored. People are lifted from the street or their place of work, held incommunicado and secretly deported. Public institutions like universities or research bodies have had their funding removed while every anti-scientific prejudice is embraced. Trump has given the Israeli government carte blanche to commit genocide in Gaza and sucked up to Vladimir Putin while Moscow’s forces lay waste to Ukraine, killing civilians with missiles and drones.
Criticize the government and you’re in danger of being cancelled. So, Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show is taken off air after he dared challenge the official view about right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk’s killing. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said: “Another media outlet withered under government pressure. We cannot be a country where late night talk show hosts serve at the pleasure of the president. But until institutions grow a backbone and learn to resist government pressure, that is the country we are.”
This is the regime that Starmer kneels before, implementing a British version of Trumpism with the government’s racist attacks on migrants, the curtailing of human rights with bans on direct action group Palestine Action protesting over Gaza, abandoning serious action over climate change and sucking up to the major corporations. In practice, his government is opening the door to Farage and his right-wing populist Reform outfit.
So, down with Trump and down with Starmer!
Photos: Peter Arkell
Words: Paul Feldman
The creative people who projected Trump’s relationship with Epstein onto Windsor Castle should be freed
Statement from the Led By Donkeys campaign group: “We deliberately did it just before he arrived, so that the police wouldn’t be concerned for his (Donald Trump’s) safety,” the spokesperson said.
“We’ve had legal advice before. There’s nothing illegal about this.
“No laws are broken, nobody’s hurt, no property was damaged, and yet – look at the reaction.
“So it’s just a ridiculous overreaction.”